At the end of each hockey game, the media selects three stars, the three players of the game. The awards are usually reserved for the game-winning-goal-scorer, or the winning goalie or a skater who earned a couple of points.
It’s a rare occasion when a forward who doesn’t score gets that honor.
Not many forwards are as quietly effective as Mark Mullen.
The Boston University junior earned that rare honor on Saturday night in the Icedogs’ 2-1 win over Merrimack College at Walter Brown Arena.
On a team as deep as BU, any discussion of a most valuable player is sure to inspire heated debate, with five or six players deserving of the accolade. Mullen has as strong a case as any.
The Dorchester native is BU’s primary penalty killer, forming the team’s top PK duo with senior forward John Sabo, going out first when the Terriers are down two men. Mullen is so good on the kill getting many chances to play on the disadvantage since BU takes more penalties than any other team in Hockey East that it has actually kept him from playing glory hound on the power play.
‘In reality he could play on the power play,’ said BU Coach Jack Parker. ‘But he’s killing penalties so much we need to give him a little rest.’
‘I think everybody would like to be on the power play,’ Mullen said. ‘I think you need to realize that what you do is important and if you keep working hard, you can score goals. I just want to be a complete player.’
In the last two weeks, Mullen has had plenty of chances to kill off five-on-threes, and he has done the job. Against Northeastern University and the University of New Hampshire, Mullen anchored a three-man penalty kill that shut those two teams out with the two-man advantage.
‘In five-on-threes you just can’t get too extended,’ Mullen said. ‘You have to stay in a smaller area and not chase around too much. Play your position and try to anticipate where the passes are going to be and hope you get lucky and you get good goaltending.’
Last night the luck ran out somewhat. Mullen made some nice plays on the kill, but Merrimack’s Tim Reidy put a puck past junior goaltender Sean Fields, giving Merrimack a lead it would eventually surrender.
While fans and journalists may not always be quick to think of Mullen when the subject of BU’s top players comes up, his coach, a pretty fair evaluator of talent, knows what Mullen means to the team.
‘He’s as unheralded of a guy as you’re going to find,’ Parker said. ‘He gets all kind of penalty killing time, he plays with two freshmen, he’s giving them a lot of poise and a lot of confidence.
‘He’s really a hard guy to appreciate unless you’re watching him every day in practice.’
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